The Epidemic
by theweirdworder
Summary: Life at Victoria International School of the Arts seemed perfect. Then SARS came. Alanna only has a few medical courses under her belt. When her best friend Jonathan falls ill, she knows she has to do something. Written for August's TPE Challenge.


The Epidemic

In the months since the epidemic started, things only went from bad to worse. Most of the ambassadors and prominent people who had been staying in Hong Kong from the country and were not yet afflicted fled, taking their children who had been staying at the Victoria International School of the Arts.

The school had a few courses providing medical training. Alanna had went through all of them, though her real goal was to go back to the US and join the army. It may not have been much but the situation required every force that could be mustered. Alanna watched everything from the sidelines, wondering if her skills could be of any use at all.

She watched as Francis died, feeling a stab of guilt as she discovered the news. It was silly to think that she could do anything amidst a disease that was killing so many people but still...

But then Jonathan got sick too. Jon, son of America's ambassador and her very best friend. She swore that this time, SARS would not steal another boy from this world.

Somehow she had managed to get a position as nurse and was telling the other men what to do.

The smell of death and antiseptic permeated the air. Alanna could hear the sounds of forced breaths and moans echo throughout the hall.

She looked at Jonathan, a boy who had once been at the top of the fitness exams in gym class, now reduced to the pale, writhing figure on the hospital bed.

"Alan?" he whispered, the name she went by at the school. His voice was a deep rasp. Alanna went over to his bed and took his hand.

"I'm here. It's Alan.''

Jon smiled weakly. "I knew you wouldn't let me die."

"You're not going to die," Myles, their history teacher, said over her shoulder to Jon.

The boy frowned. "Myles? You're here?" He picked his head off of the bed and looked around the room. "I dreamed there were people..."

"There were," Alanna assured him. "Myles threw them out."

Jonathan's eyes looked as if they were going to ask more questions. Not only was there no time for that but it would waste precious energy that might go into his healing.

"Sleep now, Jonathan,'' she said. "Sleep."

His eyelids, already heavy, fell and Jonathan quickly slumbered. The sounds of his labored breathing, assisted by the ventilator attached to him, filled the room. Alanna adjusted the mask on her face, careful not to inhale any of the germs from the virus.

Coram, the nurse on staff, came in with antibiotics to put in Jonathan's IV. Alanna adjusted his pillow and put blankets on him, waiting for further instruction from Coram. As Coram was mixing the medicine, Myles came over to Alanna.

"What's wrong?'' he asked. "You've been shaking since Jonathan went to sleep."

"This has been taking everything out of me," Alanna admitted. "It's like nothing I've ever felt before."

He nodded. "It was very generous for you to offer to help but I'm not sure of what it will do."

She sighed. "Myles, could you talk to his parents? They'll be worried..."

"Say no more," he said. He left, trying to smooth his hair.

Coram turned to her. "I hope ye know what ye're doin','' he said as he put the medicine in his IV.

"So do I," she said.

They continued to take care of Jonathan for the next two hours. Eventually Myles returned, almost fainting as he entered a room that had turned boiling hot (it was best for Jonathan, apparently).

"The doctor is with Jonathan's mother," Myles reassured her. "He'll see that she's kept calm and doesn't come in here. His father is stuck in an emergency meeting with the delegates and can't come here."

Alanna looked around at the sweat-soaked bodies in the room and felt the enormity of the situation. Yet there was no time to worry, no time to think and worry about things.

"Timon, go home," she said. "You need to rest and eat."

The nurse nodded and left. Alanna looked toward Myles and Coram and began to help them some more with Jonathan.

Alanna walked like a zombie, her lids dropping as she did her best to help Coram with Jonathan's care. She had no energy left to talk.

Myles left and returned with a tray of food from the cafeteria.

"Eat," he said. "You can sleep on that couch over there."

Alanna nodded, too tired to argue. There was only so much that she could do, after all. So she let herself succumb to sleep and for few beautiful brief moments, she felt worries slip away from her.

**So that was 116 to 120 of **_**Alanna: The First Adventure**_** in my edition. I'm not sure if that counted as a current event but hopefully that was current enough. Anyway please read and review. **


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